Hassenpflug Chair

Gustav Hassenpflug was a German architect from Düsseldorf who studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau. He worked in partnership with Marcel Breuer in Berlin and later in the USSR. In 1934, at the age of 27, he moved to Switzerland and took up a post as technical director at Embru for six months. For the period that followed, up until 1939, he worked for Embru on a consultancy basis from time to time. At Hassenpflug’s suggestion, Embru developed the first height-adjustable school desks and chairs around 1934. By separating the chair from the table – unlike the fixed school desks common at the time – it became possible for the first time to put findings from occupational physiology into practice. This meant that children could be offered a workspace that could be individually adjusted.

Embru’s product range is organised according to a numerical system based on a four-digit code. When a product is added to the range, it is assigned its own unique number, which allows it to be reliably identified. This system was introduced in 1934 by Gustav Hassenpflug and has proved its worth to this day.

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